Sole- less Minister speaks out

19 September 2014 04:36 pm

Culture and the Arts Minister T.B Ekanayake explained the reason for the worn-down state of his shoes on his way to meet the Chinese President who was the chief guest at a meeting in connection with the signing of a cultural agreement at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo recently.

He said he had lost the soles of both his old shoes which he had at home and he had not worn it for a long period.  He said he had to proceed to the meeting because it was with the President of China.

“Those shoes were white. I wore them because it matched my costume, but I had not worn them in a while and both soles came off on the way. What could I do? I had to go to the meeting as well. It is not every day that you get to shake hands with the President of China, so I went like that. Our people are all down to earth, so I didn’t pay attention to the state of my shoes. There were pictures of this that were circulated. These things happen,” Minister Ekanayake explained.





Pictures courtesy: Foreign Correspondents' Association of Sri Lanka